About Us

Evolution of a Program:

Minnesota Aerials is co-owned by Jacob and Melissa Vevea. The program began in 2008 when several former gymnasts requested training. What began as private lessons quickly evolved into a team of competitive gymnasts. In July, the Aerials sent four gymnasts to the AAU Level 8 National Gymnastics Championships in Tampa, Florida. The result was a National Vault Champion and 14 medals! When word got out about the success of the girls, requests to join the program came flooding in.

We were fortunate to find an excellent location in Ramsey to grow our program. The facility received an extensive facelift & was stocked with brand new AAI equipment.

The club had a successful 2008, winning two team state titles in the MAGA program and fielding three strong USAG level 9 gymnasts. With a surge of young talent they stormed onto the USAG field permanently in 2009. Fielding teams from level 4-9. The year ended with state entrants and medal winners at both the compulsory and optional levels, In the postseason, level 8 Ashley Rundell had a strong showing at the Regional Championships in Kansas City!

During the summer of 2010 the club began looking at expanding to a bigger facility. With the help of a great staff and a ton of parent volunteers Minnesota Aerials moved from Ramsey to Anoka in October and into a 14,000 square foot facility. The new gym has all of the latest in training pits and gymnastics technology. It is equipped with multiple trampolines, a tumble track, 80′ rod floor, dance studio, separate pre-school area, pro-shop, party rooms and TIVO instant replay.

Since moving to the new facility, the team program is nearing 60 gymnasts. We have added a separate competitive program, the Xcel team which has 18 gymnasts competing in three levels. Xcel is a good option for gymnasts wanting less time commitment and less stringent rules. We had our first official T.O.P.S. team in 2011 and are proud to offer a Tramp and Tumbling program in 2012.

What Makes Us Different?

With so many clubs in the Metro area, many wonder what makes the Minnesota Aerials stand above the rest. As the parents of our gymnasts would tell you, it is the design of our program. We recognize that gymnastics is not the only aspect of your child’s life. We encourage participation in school activities, religious activities, family time and other sports. In fact, over half of our team members are dual athletes! As both owners are teachers, education is a high priority for our gymnasts. We expect team athletes to bring in report cards and to maintain a B average in order to remain eligible for competition. While other clubs require their team gymnasts to practice five or six days a week, the Minnesota Aerials are out to prove that there is another path to success. By utilizing small group sizes, careful lesson planning and time management, our gymnasts are excelling without the excessive time commitment. Since the girls have less time in the gym, they are expected to stay focused and give 100% at every practice. Workouts are intense, but our gymnasts wouldn’t have it any other way!

Minnesota Aerials Gymnastics has quickly evolved in the past four years. We’ve grown and developed from a gymnastics school into a year-round multi-sport program that now offers gymnastics, dance, tumbling for cheer, X-Training, holiday camps, & FitKids programs!

We are an educationally-based center, developing and implementing weekly curriculums for our programs. Our goal is to continually improve because we believe all of us are happier when we’re learning and growing. We believe children learn more effectively when placed in a playful, engaging environment and that through our sports, we can teach that learning can be FUN, exciting and rewarding. Once kids internalize that learning is fun, their futures can explode with possibilities! Building positive learning attitudes that set the stage for a life-long pursuit of learning is a very important issue that ties directly into success. The hope of every parent is to have happy, successful children, and we believe we can assist in this great endeavor!

Benefits of our Programs

Many of the benefits of our programs are not readily or even immediately apparent because they work internally. Smiles and laughter are always great clues for parents that let them know their children are having fun and enjoying themselves, but there’s another very important side to all of this that isn’t so visible but is extremely important. This relates to brain development and what neuroscience has learned about movement and sensory integration.

Although we at Minnesota Aerials believe learning to perform a flip, a twist or a turn are great ways to learn new skills and develop self-confidence in the process, there’s really much, much more going on during this process. And as our children spend more time sitting (watching TV, using the computer, playing computer games, etc.), it is imperative to balance these activities with a steady supply of movement activities that stimulate the brain in different ways and promote proper brain development for later higher learning.